Puck Daddy

Back by popular demand, here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.

James Van Riemsdyk returns to Philadelphia, and there's a good chance that he'll have opportunities to make his former home miss him early. The Flyers aren't the best defensive team in general, but they've been especially porous early in games. They've fallen behind in the first period in 5 of the last 6 games. But maybe they're just working on their comebacks -- they've gotten quite good at that.

Two hot teams go at it, which is not something I expected to write about this game when the season started, and definitely not something I thought I'd be writing after the Senators lost Erik Karlsson and, recently, Craig Anderson. But the Senators have won a season-high 4 straight, and the Canadiens have won 6 of 7. How well is Carey Price playing these days? He got a shutout in his last game and it didn't even warrant a three-star selection. You can do better, Carey.

How good is Jamie Benn? Barry Trotz says he might be the best player in the NHL right now. That might be pushing it, but you can't blame the league's best defensive coach for overpreparing. Benn has 12 points in his last 9 games. Since Nashville Predators' games are so often 1-0 affairs, stopping the guy that's averaging more than one scoring play per game is the key to success.

At some point, the Chicago Blackhawks are going to lose in regulation, right? Well, the Oilers have as good a chance as any at putting a notch in the Chicago's loss column, has been unblemished for 18 games. They've had a lot of success against Chicago recently, winning the last three matchups and scoring 21 goals while doing so. Fingers crossed for a track-meet.